This past weekend I made granola. I actually have been making granola at home for the past 4/5 years pretty regularly. I’ve had a lot of time to experiment – this weekend led to my best experiment to date (read to the end to find out the secret). I use a base of oats and buckwheat groats and throw in whatever other nuts and seeds I have laying around the house. This week had a combination of sunflower seeds, walnuts, and slivered almonds.

One of my favorite things that I started doing was adding turmeric to my granola. It adds a nice earthy flavor and beautiful color to the granola. It also has great anti-inflammatory properties. I also have moved away from using refined sugars and instead use brown rice syrup and a touch of maple syrup. I still use the maple syrup since it has the most wonderful flavor. I normally don’t measure out my ingredients since I am able to eyeball the ratios but I’ve listed what I think are about right below. You just need to make sure you have some base of oats, mix-ins, oil, sweetener, and flavorings + salt.

Now here is the secret for what makes this granola so great. After the granola has been in the oven for 20 minutes, sprinkle on your coconut so it doesn’t burn. Then turn off the oven and check in on the granola in about 30/45 minutes to an hour, although I left one batch in the oven for 2 hours while I did a run to the store and it turned out great. By leaving the granola in the warm oven, it allows the sugars to caramelize which adds a great crunchy texture to the granola, brings more flavor complexity, and allows us to use less sugar but still get plenty of sweetness. I personally I like my granola on the less sweet side as I find conventional yogurts to be plenty sweet and I add honey to plain yogurt.

Recipe

3 cups oats

1 ½ cups buckwheat groats

2 cups of nuts and seeds: I like to use things like sliced almonds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, pecans, - you can also add mix ins like dried fruit, raisins, etc. but I’m personally not a huge fan

½ cup unsweetened coconut flakes (shreds are a-okay)

½ cup brown rice syrup

¼ cup maple syrup

1/3 cup avocado oil or coconut oil ( can also use butter or any other light flavored oil)

1/2 tablespoon vanilla (I really love vanilla so I use a full tablespoon usually)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon all spice

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 cup turmeric powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 350F and line a cookie sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper

2. In a large bowl combine the oats, groats, nuts, and seeds along with any other mix ins you are adding besides coconut (see note at bottom if you are using dried fruit or cacao chips ). Feel free to adjust ratio as you like – maybe you like more oats, maybe you’re a huge walnuts fan. Mix in the spices (sans vanilla) and salt as well

3. `In a microwaveable cup mix together the brown rice syrup and maple syrup. Microwave for 30 seconds to make a little bit more runny.

4. Add the avocado oil and vanilla to the cup and stir together to combine

5. Add the liquids to the dry ingredients bowl, folding till combined. It will be sticky and may take some muscle but everything should be coated

6. Lay the granola in a thin layer on the cookie sheet

7. Put in a center rank in the over for 10 minutes. Take the sheet out and stir and rotate the sheet for even browning. Put it back in the oven for another then 10 minutes

8. Turn off the oven. Take sheet out of the oven, sprinkle coconut flakes all over the top, put the cookie sheet back in the turned off oven for 45 minutes to an hour – its fine if you leave it in for longer.

9. Take the cookie sheet out, mix the coconut in and enjoy. I recommend waiting till the granola has fully cooled before packaging

Note: Wait till the granola has completely cooled before mixing in dried fruit or cacao/coco chips. The fruit will absorb all the liquid and your granola won’t be crunchy and the cacao will melt.

This was originally posted on Nov. 25, 2015 in my old travel blog

Yesterday my friend Trevor and I decided to head over to Downtown LA to take some pictures and see if we could get into the every popular Broad museum. After an hour and half of waiting in the standby line (Pro-tip. Come at least 30 minutes, if not an hour before they open if you weren’t able to make a reservation), we got to go in and see what everyone is making such a large deal about.

As a disclaimer I am not the largest fan of contemporary art; however, with that said I still appreciate art, it’s hard not to when your dad is a professional artist , so I came into the Broad with an open mind. Going in there were many pieces that I was excited to see since they had been popping up on my friends Instagram accounts.

Once you make it to the top of the escalator you are greeted by Jeff Koons’ Ballon Tulips. I am not really sure how I feel about Jeff Koons. I know that as a person I do not like him and I question a lot of his work, he seems narcissistic and embodies everything about commercialism to me. I actually ran into another friend who was also visiting the Broad and he brought the question of Koons being an artistic genius or impostor. We both agreed that the balloon stuff is super cool but some of his other pieces seem gimmicky. Case in point the basketball floating in a fish tank, I do not like that piece but they have it at the Broad if you are a fan of it. Personally I did not like seeing his work as the greeting piece, but that has more to do with my personal hatred of Koons. However Trevor and I did come up with a selfie replacement, which I like to term the “ballon-ie” since you take a picture of yourself in the shiny balloons.

There were many pieces that I loved at the broad such as the larger than life dining set, aptly names Under the Table by Robert Therrien. His giant dishes also greet you right when you enter the Broad. There were works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Cindy Sherman, Keith Haring, Barbara Kruger gracing the walls and floor of the Broad as well. I loved seeing Roy Lichtenstein’s work because his name has been popping up in my dreams even though before visiting I hadn’t seen much of his work or even known much about him. My favorite piece in the Broad was Kara Walker’s African’t, which were these larger than life paper cutouts that graced the walls. It seems to portray a happy scene but upon closer examination one sees the hardships of life and slavery, I don’t really know how to describe it, all I can say is that there is shock value even though the work isn’t that shocking if that makes any sense. It is a very moving piece that all should see. Her smaller paper cutouts titled Burning African Village Play Set with Big House and Lynchingis also on display and they are beautiful as well. With her amazing art she is able to tell a story.

Overall the Broad was super cool. Trevor and I unfortunately didn’t get to see Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrored Room but more reason to visit back. The Broad is a cool museum, We both agreed that it wasn’t as large as we had imagined it to be, but the Broad still boasts a sizable and tasteful collection of modern and contemporary art. If you are looking for something fun and free to do in LA I highly recommend seeing the Broad. Plus they have the world’s coolest elevator so what more reason do you need. For more info about the Broad visit their website www.thebroad.org

Homemade Granola Recipe

Visiting the Broad